Milford Wind Project: Utah Power For California

An event happening last year near Milford, Utah caught my attention. The first phase of the Milford Wind Corridor Project was completed and is the largest wind facility in Utah and one of the largest in the West. Here is what the official press release had to say:

Located in Millard and Beaver County, Utah, the first phase of the project will generate 203.5 MW of clean energy, making it the largest renewable energy facility in Utah. At a ribbon-cutting event at the project site near the town of Milford, First Wind officials were joined by Utah Lt. Governor Greg Bell, officials with the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), state and local officials, as well as officials with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the cities of Burbank and Pasadena, and the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA).

The Milford Wind Corridor is the first wind energy facility permitted under the Bureau of Land Management’s Wind Energy Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Western US states. But why wind power when Utah has plenty of cheap coal? This electricity is bound for California to help achieve the Los Angeles goal of 20 percent renewables by 2010.

Updates

Since the original story in November of last year there have been a few events concerning the Milford Wind Project.

February 11, 2010 — Kelsey Mitchell, a senior at Millard High School, will be the first recipient of a one-time scholarship of $3,000 through the First Wind Scholars program. In March the program was expanded to include as many as 10 scholarships for qualified students. In addition, one renewable scholarship of $5,000 for up to four years will be awarded to the most qualified student.

February 24, 2010 — First Wind was recognized during the Excellence in Renewable Energy award in Austin, Texas. The Milford Wind project received the “Reader’s Choice Award” by the readers of RenewableEnergyWorld.com, a widely read renewable energy news source.

April 27, 2010 — After a morning visit with Governor Gary Herbert in Salt Lake City, Interior secretary Kenneth Salazar visited Milford High School to congratulate the renewable energy class of Andy Swapp, whose students were instrumental in gathering information used in creation of the 204 megawatt wind farm.

May 9, 2011 — First Wind announced Monday that the construction of the 102-megawatt Milford Wind Corridor Phase II — Milford II — project has been completed and commercial operations have begun.

Why Wind Power?

Milford Wind Turbine Project

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of generating electricity by wind. Perhaps you can think of some I have missed.

Advantages

Wind turbines do not generate pollution or radioactive waste.

Their construction and installation has less environmental impact.

Individual homes can be supplied independent of power lines, ensuring electricity during natural disasters.

Using larger turbines connected to the grid, power can be generated for large numbers of people.

No non-renewable resources, like coal, natural gas, or oil are consumed.

Wind is a domestic source of power.

No water required (compared with 490 gallons per megawatt-hour for coal).

Disadvantages

The cost of electricity is more than coal, natural gas, or nuclear.

Subsidies are required.

An undesirable appearance.

Because of their height, they can be damaged by lightning.

The blades of wind turbines can hit birds.

Some turbines produce noise.

Technical Details

The Milford Wind Project consists of:

Generation of 203.5 megawatts.

97 wind turbine generators.

A 90-mile transmission line connecting the wind farm to the IPA in Delta, Utah.

13 meteorological towers.

A 34.5K volt power underground collection system linking each turbine to the next and to the Facility substation.

A Facility collector substation.

An interconnection facility at the connection between the Facility transmission line and the IPP substation.

A Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.

From the press release:

Featuring 97 total wind turbines including 58 Clipper Liberty 2.5 MW wind turbines and 39 GE 1.5 MW wind turbines, the first phase of the project has the capacity to generate clean, wind energy to power about 45,000 homes per year. Managed by the dedicated team at RMT, Inc., construction on the 203 MW first phase of the Milford Wind Corridor project began nearly a year ago in November 2008.

Economic Benefits

The town of Milford and Beaver and Millard counties can harness this energy source to help the local economy.

Comments

How refreshing! Eco-minded people who actually do not lie! (either from ignorance, or intentionally to decieve for profit) – I am refering to the point in:

Disadvantages

1.The cost of electricity is more than coal, natural gas, or nuclear.

Expecially the last component. Because here in Europe where I live, a lot of Ecofreaks* tend to lie about the fact that once built, nuclear power plants produce electricity at a low price – and that the cost of fuel in running a nuke plant makes up than less than 4% to 5% of the running cost, which means even if the price of Uranium rose by 200% the cost of electricity from a nuke plant would go up by roughly 12% to 15%.

* I divide people that speak and take a moral stand on the enviroment into two groups – ecologically minded and concerned people, and Ecofreaks. The former attempt to change the way we work while maintaining our living standard using inteligent application of engineering. Ecofreaks talk bullshit about how we should change to shutting down all nuclear, coal and gas powered plants and build fields of PV panels.

The advantages and disadvantages are what I inserted into the post. However, I don’t consider myself Eco-minded. The main argument lately against fossil fuels is that they cause global warming. I don’t believe that a majority of warming is caused by man but by the sun.

I do not like subsidies but in certain cases if government support offsets other factors, for example, reducing dependence on foreign oil, then I will accept them.

I get a subsidy of 50 cents a gge on my natural gas vehicle and I don’t object to that. So I can’t cry about other people’s subsidies. I don’t drive my NGV for ecological reasons but for the $1.27 gge price.

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Of Interest

Who is this Rickety?

I'm Rick Willoughby. I live in Utah, a retired Software Engineer. I'm a Mormon, married with 5 children and 12 grandchildren.

I emigrated from England in my late twenties, bringing with me one small suitcase and a few dollars. I appreciate the opportunities America has given me and the friendliness of the people to new citizens.

I blog about my family as well as politics, religion, finance, technology, and other topics.